Idk if it's acting or real. It's probably a mix of both.
Political parties are super greedy for money and as Kamal Narayan is a wealthy man, I'm pretty sure he donates A LOT of money to the party for his ticket. If he gets out of the party, his money also goes with hi, which is probably something Arjun Desai does not want happening. So he probably sees the well dressed/ fed villagers as "real" in the sense that Kamal Narayan has not made them slaves. And he probably also refuses to do a deeper investigation because he probably doesn't want to lose Kamal Narayan's funding. Either way, when the truth comes out (which is a long time from now) both Kamal Narayan, Arjun Desai, and the party are going to be in the hot seat.
I think Aditya writing a book about Chakor was a great move. It has really put pressure on Kamal Narayan.
As for Chakor's freedom, well for the sake of the show, I think she'll probably be bonded for a long time. I kinda like the fact that it ends up being Kamal Narayan, who hates Chakor, who ends up pushing for her to get educated (unless that track is abandoned). He basically ensures his own destruction by doing so, but he also doesn't really have any other option as Chakor is pretty well known by now.